Creative Ways to Age in Place

As we age, our needs indefinitely change, which is why it’s so important to ensure your home is transitioning into maturity at a like rate that you are. Here are five creative, pre-emptive ways to optimize your home’s functionality as you age.

Widen Your Doors and Entryways

If you have children, you may have gone through this with their strollers. The average door is sometimes not wide enough to accommodate all necessary traffic; ‘necessary traffic’ including wheelchairs. A wheelchair-friendly house should have doorways that are 36 inches or more and hallways that are 42 inches wide (or more).

Upgrade Your Lighting

When modifying your light fixtures, think about location and user-friendliness. Rocker switches that you push are often more forgiving if you have arthritic hands, verses switches that flip. Also, consider depreciating eye sight when lighting a room. This may mean adding more light sources for safety’s sake. If you have the budget for it, motion-sensor lights can make a huge difference when maneuvering the home at night.

Move Your Laundry Room to a More Convenient Place

Photo Source: Saniflo.ca

Anything that requires plumbing tends to automatically mean a lot of work and a lot of money, which is why people tend to shy away from these types of extensive projects. But as you age, and your capabilities change, having a laundry room downstairs, while your clothes and linens are upstairs, can make laundry a fatigue-inducing task. Saniflo provides a feasible solution to this dilemma, with their advanced pump technology that allows you to install a laundry anywhere in your home, without invasive construction. A spare bedroom or even a closet on the main floor can become laundry facilities without major plumbing work!

Trip-proof Your Floors

This means everything from ensuring flush transitions from room to room, to getting rid of blatant trip hazards, such as rugs and elaborate carpets, to avoiding high gloss finishes on hardwood floors, which can be slippery and unforgiving should a fall occur.

Move Your Master Bedroom

Adding a first-floor master suite to your home will cost you, but it may be a worthwhile investment if it means less climbing up and down the stairs as your mobility is affected by age. Placing your bedroom in close proximity to a bathroom is also a wise idea, which factors in safety as well as convenience.